September was a mixed bag in local search. While Google’s COVID-related updates continued as expected, the search giant’s primary competitors—Apple and Bing—both adjusted their review integrations in a way that hurt a different big player in the review market. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic is prompting consumers to reconsider how they judge and choose businesses, so changes […]
Last year, most people were unaware of attributes despite them being a feature of Google My Business (GMB) in many business categories. They provided useful information to consumers (and some handy SEO side-effects) but were underutilised. It was not until the global onset of COVID-19 that Google attributes suddenly became a critical local optimisation strategy. […]
COVID-19 has demanded a number of updates to the local listings ecosystem, primarily to better communicate health and safety protocols with customers. Many of these changes, however, appear to be general improvements that have been precipitated by the pandemic but offer value that reaches far beyond crisis response. Expect these features to become mainstays even […]
Google’s updates are not slowing down. As we grow accustomed to life with COVID-19 and how to do business amid social distancing practices, updates to the local search ecosystem have stopped becoming stopgaps and are now full-fledged long-term changes. To ensure marketers are making the most out of these trying times, it is crucial to […]
There are huge changes in online search as COVID-19 continues to alter the daily habits of people all over the world. Stay-at-home guidelines and non-essential business closures have drastically changed the landscape of both local search and commerce in general. In times like these, there are obvious industry booms and busts. The healthcare industry (unfortunately) […]
February was a tumultuous month for Google. Multiple updates, minor tweaks, and even a couple of glaring errors saw much change in the local search ecosystem this month— especially in Europe. Here’s everything you need to know. Google links to third-party rivals on European SERPs In a move that can only be detrimental to Google, […]
The holidays are behind us and it’s time to go over the search engine updates that snuck by while we were gorging on sweet treats. There were a few noticeable changes from both the tail end of 2019 and the first month of 2020, including Google kicking off the year with a core algorithm update […]
You won’t be surprised to learn that Google is essentially a monopoly in local search, controlling up to 95% of search traffic in certain verticals. That makes the search giant a critically important source of revenue for local businesses and enterprise brands with distributed local footprints. But local search is more than Google My Business […]
As far back as 2015, 97% of consumers were searching for local businesses online, with 93% of those searches triggering Google’s local 3-pack. It was obvious that local search was an enormous part of all online search—and in 2020, it’s easy to argue that all search is effectively local. After all, even when a query […]
As 2019 draws to a close, Google is looking ahead to 2020 with its updates. While some have taken effect immediately, the majority of November’s updates are tests and pilots on what will be fully rolled out in 2020. For online marketers, staying on top of the coming trends is key—you don’t want to be […]